Black Powder

One of the most impactful exports of CAPTITAL CITY has been an explosive found hidden in caves deep within the The World Spine. It is a favorite of pirate captains in the far south to shoot large balls of steel from the decks of their ship. It is also used to create bombs - one time use explosive spheres that can be thrown by hand.
Alchemists have been unable to reverse engineer the substance, its completely unknown if it is magical or a combination of natural minerals.
It is highly regulated in most large cities due to its explosive qulities makgin it a difficult substance to study. Rarity, usefulness, and regulation make it more expensive than most drugs.
The continent has yet to produce any appreciable amount of weapons that can use it. But the southern pirates already have a thirst for black powder but their local supply has begun to dry up and demand for pre-made is on the rise.
The real difficulty is maintaining large stores of the stuff to keep pace with repeated cannon firings. This has led those who have it to focus heavily on restricting their competitors from having access to it. This has led to the pirates paying the highest prices and local kingdoms being unable to keep up.
There is a small influx of cannons migrating north, though the pirates are slow to give up one of their advantages to their counterparts. Likewise, handheld cannons called guns are taking the long ocean ride to continent and have mainly been picked up by various dwarven clans.
There has yet to be any large scale adopting of black powder powered weapons. While their potential is evident it is unclear how big of an impact they will have on the larger scale conflicts that are coming.